.270

can't remember where i read it, but taulman and his guys are the ones that started this. they got with the ranches that have fairly large amounts of private land and initiated this thing. this is about getting uso more elk tags. sure, the ranches will make some bucks selling permits, just like in new mex. and they are in this right along with taulman, but he's the guy that got this rolling. he's in on it from the start. it ain't about deer or javelina or turkey. it's about unlimited elk permits for uso's wealthier clients. they just figured out a way to get a real powerfull lobby behind it, in the cattlemen. as far as i'm concerned, a guy oughta be able to do just about anything he wants on private land. use it how he sees fit. mine it, log it, develop it, whatever. but if they're gonna use a state owned resource, like wildlife, as if it's a personall resource, similar to livestock, then they ought to at least have to pay the state for the animals. not vice versa. this whole thing stinks badly, and if you think uso ain't got anything to do with it, you're mistaken. and badly.

i'm sure our all knowing, all seeing azgfd director and the commission will do whatever taulman tells them to do. i sure hope they have somebody readin' these sites so they can see how most folks really feel. it'd be a shame for em to be as hated as they are and not know it. the commission will do whatever is best for their political appearance and fiscal needs. they will not do what is best for wildlife and joe hunter. will a guy be able to apply for a hunt and then buy a permit too? what am i thinkin'. now i'm bein' greedy.

folks can discuss the pro's and con's of this till the cows come home. it is still a way for uso and george taulman to get even more of the few permits for elk and pronghorn that are available in Arizona. "ranching for wildlife" is a just a name attached to the program to make a few folks think that there is this a real effort to help the wildlife. that ain't true. it's to give taulman more permits and it will take them away from everyone else, resident and nonres alike, who don't have the money or the inclination to hunt with uso. if this happens, and it is just stupid enough that it probably will, everyone of the permits will go to uso. taulman has the money behind him to offer the most to the permit holders. don't be fooled. this ain't a good deal. Lark.

they call em that because o' the lips and the hubcap sized scales. poor things hafta hide in a wind storm or their lips will slap em silly. what i like is how much smarter they are than coues.

i couldn't find a button for sasquatch so i voted for deer. i don't know what to think about a poll on a website that lists the "Carp Anglers Group" as a link. is that a muley organization or is there really a carp fishin' club? that must be the guys that voted for javelina.....Lark.

the rut starts on 14th. not sure when it ends. ok, i'm makin' a funny. but i did see that on one o' them eastern whitetail hunt shows. there was this doofy dork talkin' about how he was gonna kill a monster over a cornflinger the next day. and he said, and i ain't kiddin', "today is november 13th, and the rut starts on november 14th". i've heard you can set your watch by eastern whitetail, but this is just dumb. i guess them easterns really are predictable.

good ol' sci. almost looks like the guy is trying to say the nra is in on it too. and who runs sci? rich guys. bad deal for us. Lark.

Ernesto, that's a crappy thing to happen. i can tell you what is wrong with your rifle. it says remington on the barrel. i know this is gonna start a lot o' howlin', but it's the truth. the model 600 and 700 both have the same problem. they get a little bit of dirt in the trigger notch and when the safety is released it allows the hammer to slide right over notch and drop. i've seen this happen enough times that i never use a remington when i'm real serious. the post 64, push feed winchesters can have the same problem too. and your rifle doesn't have to be "dirty". you mighta just cleaned it. the old model 720, 721's and 725's all had the same problem too. i use a nearly 60 year old model 70 for a reason. it never fails. it has a 3 position hammer safety, not a trigger safety. you can break the trigger off and it won't fire if the safety is on. it has an exposed, completely adjustable trigger that is easy to keep real clean. and it has a mauser type extractor that will drag a stuck case out even if you have to beat the bolt open with a rock for some reason. i own quite a few remingtons. my kids have shot several truck loads of bucks with a mohawk .243. but i'm real careful keeping the trigger clean. and when i'm real serious about what i'm doing, my old .270 is in the scabbard. most newer rifles, in the past 30 or 40 years anyway and especially remingtons, have a "canned" trigger. the trigger set up is an assembly that comes out with just the removal of one pin. all the parts are enclosed and it's real hard to adjust most of them. and it's real easy for it to get a little dirt in it that you can't see. anyway, if you're gonna use a canned trigger rifle, make sure it's clean. good luck next year. Lark.

st david? we useta always whup up on them fellers in football. my kids saved several coues capes but i think he promised em to a guy that's trying to start a taxidermy business. i'll ax him, when he gets back. he's out with his bonenarrow trying to shoot a coues right now.

dang, shoulda hollerd earlier. i pitched 7 or 8 deer hides and half a dozen bull elk hides this year. saved some o' the capes for a taxidermist friend, but we tossed a buncha other stuff. Lark.

i read the stuff in the paper about the 3bar study. what really pissed me off is that the azgfd said they wouldn't do anything with the data because they were afraid of offending huggers. heck, anyone with any sense can tell that predators are hurting things. why did they waste the money and effort on the study if they aren't gonna use the info they gathered? there are too many lions and coyotes. there needs to be an honest effort made to reduce their numbers to match everything else. instead just the opposite seems to be the azgfd's agenda. about 20 years ago the lions got so bad on the strip that the deer population almost went to zero. i talked with a azgfd biologist who was in the process of looking for another job because he was so pissed at his bosses and their inaction on the problem. they didn't do a dang thing until the deer population got so low that the lions started starving. there were several years that there was "NO" deer hunt on the strip. this is the strip, the most famous mule deer country in the world. better than kaibab. and azgfd stood by and watched it happen. something is up in unit 27 and 28 right now too. i think the azgfd must be sorta skeered there. the new quota deal on lions in those units tells me they want somebody to get in there with hounds and get rid of some of em. the limit is one per day, per hunter, until they reach the quota. after the quota the limit goes back to one per year per hunter. a guy with hounds could have a buncha fun. he could make a pile too, if he had the clients. yeah, a guy needs to shoot every coyote and lion he sees. go buy a call and have some fun. this is the perfect time o' year to call coyotes. unless you're one o' them guys that think javelinas taste good. then i guess you'll be out trying to poke an arrow in one o' them stinkers. and the drought is bad. as soon as it quits rainin', i'm gonna see about doin' somethin' about it. Lark.

hey, keep the utah porno offa here. Lark.

i must be huntin' a different animal. they stink, inside and out. their meat stinks, don't matter how you take care of it. i've never ate no crap that i know of, but i'd imagine that they probly would run it a good race in the nasty taste department. oooooooooeeeeeeeeeee, javelina beez bad stuff. heck, squeezin' a musk bag out on it would probly improve it. there are these other kinda animals out there, one is called a deer and the other is called an elk. if you guys think javelina is good, you'll probly lay down and die if you ever eat any deer or elk, because it's so good that if you think javelina is delicious, you'll think deer and elk musta come straight from heaven. you javelina lovers probly turn yer noses up at good food like spam and baloney too. i ever tell ya about when i barfed whilst guttin' a javelina and it caused an epidemic o' barfin' with the guys i was with? man it was awful. folks barfin' ever which o' way. still won't nothin' grow on that ridge. i puked right on my pig. funny thing is, it was the best eatin' one o' the bunch. it's a helluva story. Lark.

pigs stink and they taste bad. does "proper field care" include chunkin' em offa cliff? i use a bent barreled .30/30 with no sights and shoot blanks just to make sure i don't get one. yuk. Lark.

i've spent a lot o' time in the woods in pursuit of somethin' or other. in my experience the 2 hardest animals to put down for keeps, in Az. anyway, are bull elk and whitetail. my dad shot a real nice 6x6 bull this past nov. hit him good twice and he wandered off a bit and went down. he was probably down for good but was still rollin' his head around some and trying to get up some. i could tell by where the bullet holes were that he was gonna die soon, but had my dad thump him one more time. he was so excited and shook up that i had him shoot him in the chest, instead of trying to hit him in the neck. i've seen quite a few seemingly fatally wounded bulls get up and run off. always been able to track em down and get em, but it's always a mess when it happens. they never run to an easier place to retrieve em from. with elk, their size equals to a lot of toughness and resilience. they have a real tough will to live and escape. if they're down but still breathing, get close enough to blast him again, in case he gets up. if there's any doubt, shoot him again with what you know is a gonna be a fatal shot. with coues, i think the problem with them is because they're so small that it's easy to hit em in a place that might not be fatal for awhile. like a gutshot or blowing off a leg or whatever. they're so small and not real tough that even a gutshot will knock one down sometimes and a guy thinks they're hurt a lot worse than they are. before he knows it, they're up and running or will crawl off and be hard to find. with coues they're small size can make em hard to find too. i have a friend who is a heck of a coues hunter. several b&c heads and he hunts hard a long way from the road. he had an interesting observation about finding wounded coues. they're so small and can flatten out so much, that he's found that they're usually right there, hid in something so small or in grass or leaves so low that you'd never think they could be there. he shot a big coues some years ago and couldn't find it. spent all day looking where he knew it was and could not find it. as it was getting dark he decided to give up for the day and come back. said he walked a few steps and tripped over it's legs covered in oak leaves. it was right there, but had burrowed in the leaves in a place that he felt there was no way a deer could hide there. as far as wounding one, losing it and keeping on with the hunt, it's up to the guy. if you've made a real honest effort to retrieve it, i mean hours or even days of searching, go on and hunt. learn from it. if you're a chronic gushooter and have had that happen multiple times, learn to shoot better or get a different hobby. and don't feel bad about shooting something again. you lose a lot less meat with an extra bullet hole than you do if the whole deer gets away. Lark.

ok, i looked at ever pitcher here and i don't see one goat in none of em. i see 4 wheelers and a rope in a tree (by the way, i'm pretty sure i know where that rope is too), but no goats. i think somebody is pullin' my leg. Lark.

treestand, you say pigmeat is good? we talkin' about javelinas? i think ya landed on yer head sorta hard last time ya fell outta yer stand. musta had some kinda effect on your olfactory senses. (sense o' smell and taste, to ya unejikated jokers) by the way, do ya hunt them pigs from a treestand? Lark.

i take a little vacation and the kids start actin' like a buncha brats. dang. Amanda, please repost the name callin' ones. i wanna see if there were any new ones, in case i get in a name callin' fight with somebody. bottom line is, the tribes can do whatever they want to. it is a real pisser for them to be pretty much supported by the federal gov't. and yet at the same time get to do whatever they want on the rez. but it's sorta like what i like to call the blue whale syndrome. why does the blue whale, the largest animal ever to inhabit planet earth, only have a throat the same size as a human? because that's the way it is. and don't get yanked off at the individual indian. they're pretty good folks. their politics stink, just like everbody elses, but them apaches are pretty decent folks. i have to agree with some of the game wardens bein' pricks. i've had some try some real stupid things with me a couple times and that's why i seldom venture onto the rez anymore. but again, go back to the blue whale. things could be better everywhere. i was raised on the edge of the san carlos rez and when younger spent more time there hunting and fishing and trapping than about anywhere else. caught more trout in some of the neatest places you can imagine than you could haul with a semi. hunted and took every big game animal they had to offer. and it was cheap. in some cases, free. the reason they have the trophies they have is because of the high prices they charge now. not too many folks can afford it. too bad too, because it's a neat place. there is some real resentment between apaches and white folks. if i was raised an apache i might have some of the same feelings. it's a rotten deal all the way around. the first feller that carried my name over hear from the Isles landed at Plymouth rock in 1630. so i'm a native too. the apaches showed up in southern Az. and northern mexico at about the same time the spaniards showed up from the south. so their claim to being some indigenous native sorta doesn't hit me right. them and the navajos are eskimos that migrated down from up north. the pueblo indians and yaquis had been here for thousands of years before the athbascan tongued tribes showed up. the yaquis in mexico still hate apaches. the apaches moved in on land they figgerd was their's and there was a lot of fighting. probably more fighting between the apaches and the folks in mexico went on than ever took place between the apaches and the folks north o' the border. this water rights fight that is going on right now between the apaches and the farmers is a lot more unsettling to me than them charging a bunch for a permit, and has a lot o' potential to really devestate a lot of folks. but again, it's the politicians and a couple jackass lawyers, not the regular ol' run o' the mill apache, that is doing it. the individual apaches won't see any benefit from it. some lawyers will get rich and some of the high rankin' tribal folks will, but not Joe Indian. the way the rez's are run is a travesty. lotsa graft. lotsa payoffs. their politics are pretty messed up. just a couple years ago some "opposition" folks took over the tribal buildings and run out the elected officials and they sorta had 2 adminstrations for awhile. a lot like some of the "coue" stuff you see in 3rd world countries. but again, go back to the blue whale. but give em a few more years and they'll be able to do all the stuff without everyone else knowing about it. just like the politicians off the rez. yeah, rez politics and politicians and bureucrats are all a buncha jerks, but Joe Indian is a pretty good feller. and folks yellin' at each other about what goes on, on the rez, are just wastin' their breath. you ain't gonna change anything there. fight a fight you can win, like whuppin' uso and gettin' stinkin' napalitano unelected and gettin' some good folks on the azgfd commission. Lark.

i know it ain't a coues, buti have some photos of the biggest elk i've ever seen. supposed to have come from the san carlos in the past few days. appears that one o' the local apache fellers shot it. i've never seen anything like it. looks like an 11x13. maybe 12x13. since i lost that one toe, i can't count past 11. anyway, if someone is interested in posting them here let me know and i'll email em to ya. this thing is truly a tremendous bull. like world record tremendous. Lark.

340 is pretty big. actually, i was told it scores 444. it is a thug for sure. Lark.

looks like most folks must be out huntin'. merry Christmas to everyone who ain't. good huntin' to those who are. and a happy new year too. Lark.

some years back i might've had to think a little about auto or manual transmissions. not anymore. i'm an auto man. screw all that shiftin'. i did enough o' that on the farm and at work. 20 years or so ago you could plan on an auto going out after 50,000 miles or so of heavy use. my last pickup, an 85 chevy with a 4 speed auto, went over 300,000 before the transmission took a hit. my "new" gmc has 130k+ and it still pokin' along just fine, also with the 4 speed auto. a lot of that with a horse trailer behind it. main thing is to change the fluid and filter often. in a 4x4 i'd say at least every 35,000 or so, if you're using it sorta heavy. don't let em con ya into that "transmission flush" deal they do now. might be ok if they drop the pan and change the filter after they flush it, but the filter needs changed. if it's an overdrive auto, shift it to drive in town and in the hills, too. both types of transmission have their advantages, but if you're a little lazy, you'll like the auto. Lark.

ducks rut? Lark.

good deal Amanda. you deserve something that ain't plum wore out. i agree on the abs myth. i call em anti-stop breaks. and they don't stop you quicker. the theory is that they allow you to steer when hard-breaking. but they actually take a little longer to stop ya. besides, when it comes time to lock em up, who can think about steerin' anyway. all i can think of is "Hold on fellers, this might git rough"! Lark.

if i had to think that much before i got a shot off, i'd get a headache. too cerebral. hunt em til ya jump em, shoot em on the fly. what folks need to do is learn how to guess ranges somewhat, out to about 400 yds. the size o' the deer is how much you can be off and still hit em. most every hipower is flat shooting enough that you can pretty much shoot right at anything out to 300yds or a little more, if you sight it in 3" high or so at a 100 yds. you can shoot out to 400 without a lot of elevation or real critical guesswork. if you can't get within 400 yds, then figure something different or take a hope-i shot. if you think makin' a 600 yd shot is exciting. try and get within 50 or so. see how much your hearbeats then. my oldest son snuck in to like 15 yds on his coues this year. and had a buncha fun doin' it. Lark.